Moderna COVID-19 vaccine gets the green light in Europe

The empty container of the first used Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in the last EU country to start vaccinations against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is pictured in Veghel, Netherlands, January 6, 2021. REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw

VEGHEL, Netherlands (Reuters) - A second COVID-19 vaccine won regulatory approval in Europe on Wednesday and the Netherlands belatedly launched its vaccination campaign as European countries accelerated a patchy drive to defeat the coronavirus pandemic.

The green light for Moderna Inc's vaccine from the European Medicines Authority (EMA), and later the European Commission, was a big boost for European hopes of containing a disease that has infected more than 85 million people globally and killed nearly 1.9 million.